The Ministry of Education is proposing that the assessment mode of achievement standard 91027 Mathematics and Statistics 1.2 Apply algebraic procedures in solving problems be changed from external to internal.

The reasons for this proposal are:

Schools can choose to assess students when students are ready for the assessment if the standard is assessed internally.

The implementation of the assessment currently is logistically very difficult, with clashes occurring with other significant events in the secondary school calendar that NZQA has to work around.

Currently the timeframe for benchmarking is short with pressure to get confirmed schedules to schools within a few days, which has sometimes required minor adjustments to published schedules.

The current nature of the assessment has given this standard a perceived degree of importance that was not intended and is out of kilter with other level 1 Mathematics and Statistics standards.

The proposal would remove the anomaly of having four externally assessed standards in mathematics and statistics. All other subjects have a maximum of three.

The technology-free nature of the standard can still apply if considered necessary or desirable.

The standard is well understood by teachers and they are making sound assessor judgements with a high level of agreement with the verifiers' judgements.

Digital technologies have deeply transformed the teaching and learning of functions in the last decades, especially through the potential they offer for accessing a diversity of representations of functional objects, and for connecting these in dynamic ways. Technology has also been used for approaching functions, and the associated idea of variation, with sensorimotor devices, and more

7th April 2014- registration for ISLP poster competition 2014-2015 opens. 16th December 2014 - closing date for NZ competition. All entries must be with the NZ judges by this date. 14th March 2015 - NZ winners announced.